Inside the AquaHacking Binational Water Issues — Part 3 of 4
At the end of a long shift on Lake Erie, a commercial fisherman brings in the catch of the day, guides it down the line, and fillets it clean. What's left over—the head, the skin, the scales, the bones, the roe—gets swept aside, treated as waste or directed toward relatively low-value uses. Multiply that single process by every fishery, every port, every marina around the Great Lakes, and you start to see a system that is quietly leaving most of its value behind. This is not due to carelessness, but to a model that was never designed to ask, "what else could this become" and “how much value are we leaving behind?”
These questions sit at the heart of Great Lakes Circular Blue Economy water issue tackled in this AquaHacking Challenge. It is easy to think of freshwater stewardship purely in terms of what we protect and what we prevent. But sustainability is also about what we do with what we have: how can we rethink systems that were built for extraction and disposal, so they instead recycle value back into the ecosystems and communities that depend on them? That shift, from a linear, "take, use, discard" mindset, to a circular one, could create new opportunities and generate millions in economic value, while also reducing waste and providing an opportunity to incorporate Indigenous knowledge to better utilize what we already have.
The 100% Great Lakes Fish Initiative has become one of the top priorities for The Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers, who are co-hosts of the Challenge.
Turning Water Challenges into Innovation Opportunities
To help AquaHacking teams reimagine the definition of waste versus value, three Water Issue Leaders shared their perspectives, spanning fishery science, Indigenous-led resource governance, and the commercial fishing industry:
Across their sessions, three core themes surfaced.
From Invasive Species to Blue Economy Opportunity
The Great Lakes are the most heavily invaded freshwater ecosystem on the planet, home to more than 180 non-native species. Zebra mussels, round goby and sea lamprey have each reshaped the food cycle in their own way, from filtering out the plankton native species depend on, outcompeting local fish for habitat, and in the case of lamprey, killing up to 40 pounds of fish over each animal’s lifespan.
These invasive species drive real economic and human costs too. Decades of prevention, detection and containment work, with the most common solutions being ballast water controls, environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring and electric barriers, have helped manage the spread, but these non-native species are now permanent residents of the Great Lakes. There are simply too many of them, in too many areas, to eliminate. Therefore, instead of only asking how to remove these invasive species, there is an opportunity to ask how to extract value from them, through byproducts such as biofuels, or ecotourism such as invasive-species fishing tournaments. This idea of turning an ecological cost into a development opportunity could become a fundamental part of the circular blue economy.
Collaboration as the Real Innovation
Climate change, with its attendant habitat loss and species shifts, is increasing pressure on Great Lakes industries and causing instability for the communities and food systems that depend on this ecosystem. A truly circular blue economy has to reflect this significant scale by using resources holistically, recovering and reusing materials, and regenerating ecosystems rather than depleting them.
Just as importantly, circularity isn't only about materials and technology. The real breakthrough it provides is a new way for humans to be in relationship with the water, and with one another. In fact, creating circular systems requires collaboration across the entire value chain. And that collaboration needs to happen early. The most powerful innovation may be to develop a new way of building solutions, working with, not for, the communities most affected.
Capture the Full Value of Every Fish
One of the clearest circular-economy opportunities identified through this water issue is also one of the most tangible: using more of every fish that is already being harvested.
Up to 60% of every commercially caught fish is discarded or pushed into low-value uses like animal feed or landfill. In the Great Lakes region, roughly 35 million pounds (nearly 16,000 tonnes) of fish are caught annually, yet traditionally only about 40% of that reaches the market, meaning close to 20 million pounds (approx. 9,000 tonnes) go to waste every year, without any meaningful economic return.
The barriers of implementation are in part due to fragmented processing sites, seasonal volume swings, expensive cold-chain logistics and a lack of centralized infrastructure. These barriers are especially prevalent in smaller communities, those that depend most on their fisheries for economic prosperity. New innovations, such as smarter collection and logistics, platforms that match byproducts with the right end user, and new products like fish leather, collagen and specialty foods, present an opportunity to turn Great Lakes waste into an industry of its own. The fisheries in this region already generate $420 million (CAD) annually and support nearly 3,000 jobs, and with full byproduct utilization the Great Lakes could unlock more than $50 million (CAD) in new economic value, while cutting an estimated 8,000tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Thanks to the support and insights they received, three finalist teams of the AquaHacking Binational Challenge have developed concrete and innovative solutions for the growing Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Circular Blue Economy:
BlueLoop (BlueLoop BioWorks)
BlueLoop BioWorks converts fish-processing byproducts from the Great Lakes, including skins, scales, frames and viscera, into high-value biomaterials and bioactive ingredients through modular, enzyme-based bioprocessing. Rather than treating these byproducts as waste, the system produces collagen and gelatin hydrogel inputs, peptide fertilizers, and omega-rich oil fractions for local markets, supporting cleaner fisheries and a circular regional bioeconomy.
100% Fish (Enactus Windsor)
100% Fish transforms fish-processing waste, supplied by partner John O's Foods, into value-added products, such as Erie Eco-Bites and a collagen cream. The team's mission is to reduce landfill waste by scaling eco-friendly manufacturing as an alternative to everyday products.
OriginEaux
OriginEAUX proposes to build a non-profit regional biorefinery in Wheatley, Ontario, to valorize freshwater fishery byproducts. Using hydrothermal liquefaction and gelatin extraction, the hub would transform currently underused biomass into renewable diesel, naphtha, gelatin, and other locally useful byproducts. By connecting fish processors, fishers, agriculture, greenhouses, and regional markets, this project creates a circular model with both environmental and economic benefits.
For too long, the Great Lakes economy has only captured a fraction of the value already flowing through it. Closing that gap isn't just about better technology. It's also about a fundamental shift in how we see waste—not as an endpoint, but as an undervalued starting point for something new.
Circular solutions must respond to the economic and operational realities of fishers and processors, connect to viable markets, and rely on the right infrastructure, partnerships, and communities—all while protecting the freshwater ecosystems on which the blue economy depends. This is where AquaAction and its ecosystem can help: connecting innovators with the expertise, partners, industries, and communities they need to turn promising technologies into solutions that can be tested, adopted and scaled, to ultimately create lasting impact.
That is the real promise of a circular blue economy, an approach where the health of the water can bolster the strength of the communities who depend on it and increase the resilience of the economy they share.
Join us on November 5th for the Binational Finale to see how AquaHacking innovators are turning this opportunity into action!